--- title: Captain America Civil War: Why the Hero's Birthday Matters description: The character was introduced in March of 1941, a date that puts his storyline in stark perspective canonical: https://time.com/4311218/captain-america-1941/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-05T15:00:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:53.672Z article:section: History og:title: Captain America Civil War: Why the Hero's Birthday Matters og:description: The character was introduced in March of 1941 og:url: https://time.com/4311218/captain-america-1941/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b6d92ff457c43cf/698891cdcd1bba1fc47008e5/captain-america.jpeg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Captain America og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Captain America Civil War: Why the Hero's Birthday Matters twitter:description: The character was introduced in March of 1941 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b6d92ff457c43cf/698891cdcd1bba1fc47008e5/captain-america.jpeg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Captain America Was One of the First Nazi Hunters ## Video: Marvel's Captain America Civil War - Big Game Spot [Watch (HLS stream): Marvel's Captain America Civil War - Big Game Spot](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3vhBYzdA.m3u8) (0:30)  _Published 2016-02-08. Marvel's Captain America Civil War - Big Game Spot_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 5, 2016 3:00 PM UTC  Chris Evans in Marvel's 'Captain America: Civil War' Chris Evans in Marvel's 'Captain America: Civil War'Marvel / Disney  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 5, 2016 3:00 PM UTC When Captain America zooms into theaters this week in _Captain America: Civil War_, it will mark almost exactly 75 years since the comic-book mainstay made his first appearance in [_Captain America Comics #1_](http://marvel.com/comics/issue/7849/captain%5Famerica%5Fcomics%5F1941%5F1) on Mar. 1, 1941. That 1941 birthday puts Captain America squarely in the age range of the world’s favorite superheroes, just a few years younger than Superman and Batman (introduced in 1938 and 1939, respectively). But that’s not the only reason why the date is significant. Notably, Captain America was introduced 10 months _before_ that year’s most famous—or, rather, infamous—date: [Dec. 7, 1941](http://time.com/4129622/pearl-harbor-telegram/). When the red-white-and-blue super-soldier slugs Hitler on the [cover](http://marvel.com/comics/issue/7849/captain%5Famerica%5Fcomics%5F1941%5F1) of the first issue of his eponymous comics series, he was doing so well before Pearl Harbor prompted his nation to declare war in the real world.  The first cover of Marvel comic Captain America. Courtesy of Marvel This wasn’t the first time that World War II made itself known in American comics. In 1940, for example, Superman had [come up against](http://time.com/vault/issue/1940-03-11/page/50/) a mustachioed dictator—but, despite the physical resemblance to the real-life Hitler and Germany, he was “Amork,” leader of “Blitzen.” On the cover of the first _Captain America,_ on the other hand, Hitler is named and the background contains real Nazi imagery. Many comics used thinly-veiled stand-ins out of fear that using real names could expose publishers to criticism and potentially charges of defamation, as related by historian John E. Moser in a [piece](https://books.google.com/books?id=gQD0WX6czQAC&pg=PA194&dq=captain+america+1941&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUpKLmpLLMAhVEFT4KHbDbAWwQ6AEIJTAA#v=onepage&q=1941&f=false) on the portrayal of Nazis in _Captain America._ While Captain America was not the first superhero to confront real-world WWII villains, it was noteworthy that his creators had decided to be so overt about it. **MORE:** [How World War II First Brought Batman and Superman Together](http://time.com/4261682/batman-superman-history-together/) In the real United States, the question of enemies remained unsettled in March of 1941\. The Lend-Lease Act did not pass until that month, due largely to [isolationist objections](http://time.com/4273812/america-first-donald-trump-history/). Though few Americans would have openly said they were pro-Hitler, [many Americans felt](http://time.com/vault/issue/1941-02-24/page/20/) that the nation had no business intervening in a war that belonged to the rest of the world. That first _Captain America_ cover looks like an illustration of agreed-upon good-versus-evil. In its time, however, it would have been one step ahead of the consensus. **MORE:** [Read TIME’s Review of 2011’s ](http://entertainment.time.com/2011/07/22/captain-america-review/)[_Captain America_](http://entertainment.time.com/2011/07/22/captain-america-review/) As Randy Duncan and Matthew J. Smith [note](http://www.amazon.com/Icons-American-Comic-Book-volumes/dp/0313399239/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461879377&sr=1-1&keywords=9780313399237#reader%5F0313399239) in _Icons of the American Comic Book_, Marvel had a “general policy of abstaining from making overt political statements” but Captain America has often been an exception to that rule—a trend that, to some observers, continues in the comics story on which the new movie is based. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4311218/captain-america-1941/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4311218/captain-america-1941/"},"headline":"Captain America Was One of the First Nazi Hunters","datePublished":"2016-05-05T15:00:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:41:53.672Z","description":"The character was introduced in March of 1941","url":"https://time.com/4311218/captain-america-1941/","keywords":["movies","Comics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b6d92ff457c43cf/698891cdcd1bba1fc47008e5/captain-america.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b6d92ff457c43cf/698891cdcd1bba1fc47008e5/captain-america.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Captain America","caption":"Captain America","creditText":"Marvel / Disney","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4311218/captain-america-1941/","name":"Captain America Was One of the First Nazi Hunters"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Marvel's Captain America Civil War - Big Game Spot","description":"Marvel's Captain America Civil War - Big Game Spot","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/3vhBYzdA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-02-08T01:29:43.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3vhBYzdA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4311218/captain-america-1941/","duration":"PT30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4311218/captain-america-1941/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```